The Nature Of The Beast

Relationships bring(s) along various tribulations: dealing with everyday issues such as jealousy, controlling the primal animal instinct lying within each individual when it comes to defending relatives and reacting violently to frustrating matters such as disloyalty, betrayal and lies, to name but a few.

In Nina de Gramont's "Nature of the Beast" we understand through the characters, how society deals with repression using either a good or bad way.

It is through her short story that the author chooses to demonstrate this theory. Moreover, she reveals in "The Nature of the Beast", using symbolic and imagistic associations to the central characters that because society has difficulty dealing with emotional disturbance, people tend to repress their feelings, leading to a psychological and emotional outburst of an individual such as Eve.

Eve, the central character represents a figure of confusion and emotional repression. She refuses to admit and accept anything that is going on around her.

Eve is constantly bothered by how Stella intervenes in her relationship with Jack. It seems like everyone is leading a happy life but her. She has those emotions but she represses them. 'Everyone looking healthy and happy': the verb 'looking' suggests the idea of superficiality on the surface.

However, she still finds optimism in her environment: 'the town's wholesomeness', though it also implies that the town is perfect and she is actually deluding herself because it is not.

Although humans and animals are similar in both possessing primal instinct they differ from each other by reason and speech.

That night, Eve didn't even know she needed a drink: 'I think we need a martini.' that night when I crawled into bed, my brain slightly fuzzy with gin...'. (de Gramont 20)

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